I am still working on my full canon 7d review, but in the meantime have a few more tests shots I would like to share and another ISO comparison vs the 5d (not the mark II the first Canon 5d). In my first review (Canon 5d vs Canon 7d) I had the noise reduction set to normal for the 7d, which resulted in some soft images when viewing a small detail of the shot. In these tests the 7d has the noise reduction set to off. These were also shot at jpeg files with no post production done to them (other than sizing down for the web). Setting the noise reduction to off definitely made a difference in sharpness and the files are not that noisy. I would prefer to shoot with the noise reduction off and if noise needs to be removed in post production would rather do that than try and add sharpening to an image.
Here is a detail of the cameras at a 100% crop shot at ISO 1600.
canon 5d at ISO 1600
Canon 7d at ISO 1600
The 7d in this test is actually sharper than the 5d was.
Here is a breakdown of different ISO’s all shot at the same exact settings. Click on each image for a larger photo.
-
- canon 5d at ISO 1600
-
- Canon 7d at ISO 1600
-
- canon 5d at ISO 400
-
- Canon 5d at ISO 800
-
- Canon 5d at ISO 1600
-
- Canon 5d at ISO 3200
-
- Canon 7d at ISO 400
-
- Canon 7d at ISO 800
-
- Canon 7d at ISO 1600
-
- Canon 7d at ISO 3200
-
- Canon 7d at ISO 6400
-
- Canon 7d at ISO 12800
The camera does very well at high ISO’s. Here are a few more images all taken at 3200 in bad light with no corrections other than sizing down for the web.
If you are looking to get a 7d, Amazon has great prices on them: Canon EOS 7D
I would buy the 7d but it’s just not full frame 🙁
seriously Canon. Get it together!
Though maybe buy one as a backup camera. But it’s pricey!!
True you don’t get the full frame advantage of the 5d but sometimes that can work to your advantage. If you ever need a little more reach with a long lens having a crop camera can really help out, I know during wedding ceremonies I prefer to use this camera to get in a little closer with my 200mm lens.
Hey Mark,
I’m gonna have to disagree with you a bit on this one…I shot an article for a magazine with the 7D and found the images very noisy. I shot outdoors on a rainy/foggy day and many of the images were, well, noisy. In LR even the smallest amount of adjustment(+ or- even 1/3 stop of exposure) would yield serious artifacts. I think there are a lot of great features on the 7D but high ISO is not one of them…just my 2 cents…